Here's the official press release from the New Life Church conglomerate:

November 2, 2006

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

From New Life ChurchColorado Springs, Colorado

Rev. Ted Haggard, Senior Pastor of New Life Church, stated today that he could "not continue to minister under the cloud created by the accusations made on Denver talk radio this morning." He, therefore, placed himself on administrative leave, pending investigation, spiritual counsel, and a decision by the church's board of overseers. Pastor Haggard said, "I am voluntarily stepping aside from leadership so that the overseer process can be allowed to proceed with integrity. I hope to be able to discuss this matter in more detail at a later date. In the interim, I will seek both spiritual advice and guidance."

Under the governing structure of New Life Church, there is a board of overseers consisting of four senior pastors of other congregations. Those overseers have authority to conduct an inquiry, to discipline the senior pastor, to remove him from his position, or to restore him to ministry. The overseers of New Life Church are: Rev. Larry Stockstill, Senior Pastor of Bethany World Prayer Center, in Baker, Louisiana; Rev. Mark Cowart, Senior Pastor of Church For All Nations in Colorado Springs; Rev. Tim Ralph, Senior Pastor of New Covenant Fellowship in Larkspur, Colorado; and Rev. Michael Ware, Senior Pastor of Victory Church in Westminister, Colorado.

In the interim, New Life Church Associate Senior Pastor, Rev. Ross Parsley, will serve as Acting Senior Pastor of the church. Rev. Parsley has served in senior ministry positions at New Life Church for fifteen years. Rev. Parsley requested the community's compassion and prayers for the person who came forward with accusations, for the Haggard family, and for the New Life Church community. He also said, "New Life Church long ago adopted an overseer model of governance for situations just like this. People need to be patient and allow this process to unfold as it was designed to do."

Pastor Haggard also resigned today as President of the National Association of Evangelicals.

And the details get even more interesting. Turns out ol' Mr. Haggard is Dubya Bush's personal prayer adviser.

This below is from a blog called the Huffington Post:-----------------------------------

Today, Ted Haggard, the newly resigned leader of the 14,000 member New Life Church in Colorado Springs, admitted to asking male prostitute Ralph Jones to score him some meth for curiosity's sake and asking for a "massage". It is just a matter of time before the rest of the sordid truth unfolds.Rumor has it that the gay community in Colorado Springs has known about Rev. Ted for years and that he not only has had sex with gay prostitutes, but has also had a ten-year long affair with one of his male aides, and has come on inappropriately to many young staffers. Déjà vu, anyone?

Yesterday Rev. Haggard was asked by CNN if he had ever met a gay man or woman and he said he had no knowledge of ever meeting a homosexual, that he was not gay, and had a perfectly happy marriage. Watch this video and tell me he isn't lying.

What people may not know is that Ted Haggard is George Bush's spiritual advisor. We do know that Haggard has weekly conference calls with that great exploiter of homophobia, Karl Rove. But Colorado Springs locals say he flies to Washington several Mondays a month to pray with the president. First there was Foley, then Sherwood, now Haggard. Of course, before that there was Abramoff, Reed, and Cunningham. Oh, and don't forget Swaggart and Baker and so on. The list is endless.

Is Mercury coming out of retrograde? Is Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds? Perhaps Kafka has become God, but like Borat has exposed America's surreal topsy-turvy world.

Disgraced US evangelical leader Ted Haggard has admitted he is guilty of sexual immorality, revealing he had fought a life-long battle against "dark and repulsive" urges.

Mr Haggard was one of the most influential religious figures in the US until allegations of gay sex with a male escort and drug-taking forced him to resign.

He made his confession in a letter read out at a service of the New Life Church.

"The fact is I am guilty of sexual immorality," the married father-of-five said in the statement read by a church overseer to a 7,000-strong congregation in Colorado Springs.

"I am a deceiver and a liar."

Mr Haggard was expelled from the 14,000-member church on Saturday after an internal investigation concluded he was guilty of sexual misconduct.

Mr Haggard had previously admitted buying drugs from his accuser, 49-year-old Mike Jones, but denied paying for monthly sex over a three-year period.

Although Mr Haggard did not specify in his letter what "sexual immorality" he was guilty of, he confessed to grappling with urges throughout his life.

"There is a part of my life that is so repulsive and dark and I've been warring against it my entire adult life," he said.

"Not all of the allegations are true by this man, but enough of them are."

He has urged followers of the mega-church that he founded in 1984 not to direct their wrath at Jones.

"He didn't violate you, I did," he said.

Time magazine voted Mr Haggard one of the top 25 most influential evangelicals in the US in 2005, and he is often credited with rallying crucial votes for President George W Bush during the 2004 election campaign.

Mr Jones says he decided to go public with his claims in protest at Mr Haggard's vigorous campaigning against laws legalising same-sex marriage.

The Rev. Ted Haggard has been fired amid allegations of gay sex and drug use, but the evangelical leader can still be seen at the height of his powers _ preaching to thousands and condemning homosexuality _ in the documentary "Jesus Camp."

In one scene of the film, which follows a group of children as they develop evangelical Christian beliefs, directors Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady visit Haggard's 14,000-member New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colo. He tells the vast audience, "We don't have to debate about what we should think about homosexual activity. It's written in the Bible."

Then Haggard looks into the camera and says kiddingly: "I think I know what you did last night," drawing laughs from the crowd. "If you send me a thousand dollars, I won't tell your wife."

Later, another joke for the filmmakers: "If you use any of this, I'll sue you."

The married, 50-year-old father of five admitted in a letter read Sunday to his followers that he was "guilty of sexual immorality." He has yet to address specific claims by a male escort that Haggard paid him for sex over the past three years.

Haggard has acknowledged that he paid Mike Jones of Denver for a massage and for methamphetamine, but said he didn't have sex with Jones and didn't take the drug. He resigned last week as president of the National Association of Evangelicals, which represents 30 million people, and was removed Saturday as leader of his own church.

"Jesus Camp" is playing in several cities and expands to more on Friday and throughout the year. Ewing and Grady said that when they shot footage for the film at the New Life Church in October 2005, they were struck by how enraptured Haggard's followers looked.

"Pastor Ted, they were so proud of him. They thought he was hip, young, he didn't have that stodgy James Dobson feel," Ewing said Monday, referring to the Focus on the Family founder. "They all really adored him, that's the first thing I thought _ those people, those faces, they hung and took notes on every word he said _ I can't imagine what those people must be feeling."

Haggard has disputed the way he's portrayed in "Jesus Camp," saying on his Web site (in a posting that since has been removed) that the filmmakers shot for hours at his church and only used the parts in which he was playing with negative stereotypes.

"You can expect to learn as much about the Catholic Church from 'Nacho Libre' as you can learn about evangelicalism from 'Jesus Camp,'" he wrote. Ewing and Grady say Haggard is the only one who has complained about the way he was depicted in the film.

"Jesus Camp" also shows Haggard speaking to an aspiring young preacher named Levi, asking him whether people listen to him because he's a kid or because he has something to say. His advice: "Use your cute-kid thing until you're 30, and by then you'll have good content."

Grady said that when she first heard about the accusations against Haggard, "I was shocked but I was not surprised in any way because he did come across as somewhat of a hypocrite even in our movie _ in a smaller way, of course. He was so cynical in that exchange with that child in our movie, it was odd and it popped out."

Haggard also leads the audience in praying for President Bush to select a Supreme Court nominee who supports their beliefs (it would end up becoming Samuel Alito) and later brags about the rapid expansion of evangelicalism.

"It's got enough growth to essentially sway every election," Haggard says with a smile. "If the evangelicals vote, they determine the election."

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